MENA anti-piracy operation grows

The Middle East’s Broadcast Satellite Anti-Piracy Coalition, meeting in Cairo, say that their organisation has grown by six new members, including Rotana, ART, IAA, the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce, Gulfsat and WWE. The Coalition also says that as a result of their efforts, 15 channels have been taken off air because of piracy in their transmissions.

The additional six members join the likes of Arabsat, Jordan Media City, OSN, Noorsat, MBC, MPAA, Nilesat and others in fighting broadcast piracy.

The Coalition has been active in pursuing actions against illegitimate broadcasters, and at the Cairo meeting agreed to strengthen and speed up the identification of identifying of broadcasters who transmit pirated material, and to circulate details to its members.

OSN (Orbit Showtime) and MBC are responsible for monitoring infringements, while Rotana and ART have been invited to join this compliance group. To date, the focus has been upon international series and movies, however analysis presented at the meeting indicates that there are currently 61 channels operating as pirates and 48 of these show Arabic movies.

In August, the Coalition announced that the channels taken off air included: Al-Mamnou, Ahl Masar, CDC Cinema, CRT Cinema, Homos TV, I-Movies, Hollywood Stars, Kit Kat, Majestic 2, Mega Cinema, Nessma Al Khadra, QTV, Scope TV Movies, Time Movies and Top Movies. These channels alone were responsible for more than 700 infringements of intellectual property rights for studio-owned movies since January this year.